Knights and Dames vow to fight Vatican threat to 900-year sovereignty of the Order of Malta

Crisis talks in Rome between the Vatican and Order of Malta about controversial reforms of the Order dramatically broke down yesterday.

Marwan Sehnaoui, the Order’s Sovereign Council nominated leader and a Lebanese knight, was “disinvited” by Cardinal Silvano Tomasi from the talks and the Italian head of the Order, Riccardo Patterno, was invited in his place.

“This act of refusing to invite Marwan after he spoke to the Holy Father as the Order’s nominated representative is an act of huge disrespect to the Order,” said a senior British knight who did not wish to be named.

“It looks like the Italians have been talking to Cardinal Tomasi behind the Order’s back. It’s an extraordinary situation.”

The “blocking” of Sehnaoui from the talks follows a controversial attempt by the Vatican to reform the constitution of the Sovereign Order of Malta, the world’s oldest Christian charity and a lay religious military order since the 11th century. 

It is feared by many of its 13,500 knights and dames – almost all of whom are lay – around the world that this could result in an “unconstitutional” loss of independence for the first time in the religious military order’s 900-year history, along with the loss of its hard-earned diplomatic status.

The heated meetings between the Order’s constitutional working group and Cardinal Tomasi, the Pope’s personal representative, were meant to conclude in a programme of reforms.

The Vatican sought to grant an expanded but controversial governing role to the Fras – known as the Professed Knights (or Knights of Justice) – under the spiritual authority of the Pope.

But after a draft of the controversial new constitution was leaked to the Pillar, a Catholic website, the non-professed knights of second and third class have begun to fight back with force characteristic of an order which distinguished itself at the Siege of Rhodes in 1523 and the Siege of Malta in 1565. 

The proposed new draft reforms aim to hand over power and administrative control to just a tiny band of professed knights – around just 39 in total, who have taken vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.

The proposal has exasperated the lay members of the Order who believe it would effectively “downgrade the role of the laity” and make most lay knights and dames like “associate members”.

Following the leak, Cardinal Tomasi has now reportedly backtracked in the face of “fierce opposition” from within the highest ranks of the Order, including its aristocratic German Chancellor Albrecht Von Boeselager and senior knights, dames and officers in Britain and other European countries.

Boeselager has already stepped aside from the process after admitting that he could not accept the proposed reforms in good conscience and Sehnaoui took his place as chairman of the constitutional reform committee.

The extraordinary development of the Lebanese knight’s “disinvitation” to the talks followed a 25-minute audience with the Pope on Monday which the nominated chairman of the Order was understood to think had “gone well”.

Sehnaoui made the case that some members of Tomasi’s council did not properly understand the history and unique “charism” of the Order.

“I would also like to reassure the Order as a whole, that it was never the intention of this commission, nor of the Holy Father, to undermine the sovereignty of the Order, which will be totally preserved,” Cardinal Tomasi has told knights in a letter.

Yet many remain deeply concerned with an evident breakdown of trust and relations with the Vatican, and by the limited access to Cardinal Tomasi, who is suffering from Parkinson’s disease. A previous meeting in October was described by one present as chaotic shambles.

Sehnaoui has said in a letter that the latest snub from Tomasi was “clearly a direct attack on the sovereignty of our Order”.

“Everybody is desperate not to appear disloyal to the Holy Father but in effect he has gone completely outside the constitution of the Order and has simply parked his tanks firmly on the lawn of the Order,” a source close to the knights told the Catholic Herald.

“There has been very little communication with the Holy Father. The situation has become impossible.”

One senior figure in the Order was told curtly the papal line is: “Leave this to Tomasi. I’ve appointed him. Stop trying to interfere.” 

Despite former good relations between the Order and the Vatican and its Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican now seems to have turned “authoritarian”, seemingly defying the constitutional code of the Order, sources say.

Bizarrely, one member of Tomasi’s council claimed that they have not even “seen” the draft reform proposals that were presented to the Vatican in April 2020 just before the Order’s last Grand Master, Fra Giacomo, died.

 “The Order’s Sovereignty is simply being trampled on,” said another senior knight familiar with the talks in Rome.

He likened the crisis as the gravest threat to the Order’s identity as an autonomous religious military order since Italian Cardinal Nicola Canali almost took over the Order in the 1950s.

Senior members of the Order say they have entered into an “absolutely ghastly moment” as they face the prospect of an “ultimatum” from the Vatican which could force them to choose between losing either their diplomatic independence or their 900-year Catholic identity as a religious military order devoted to defending the helping the sick and the poor. 

Part of the motivation may be financial, sources claim. The Order delivers over £1 billion worth of aid a year, via around 42,000 medical personnel and another 80,000 volunteers, covering everything from Soup Kitchens to Maternity Hospitals. In Britain, alone, there are over 60 care homes run by the Order.

As well as being a lay religious order, the Order is also a sovereign state, exchanging ambassadors with some 110 countries, and enjoying Permanent Observer status at the United Nations.

Preserving its sovereign status has meant the Order has been no stranger to having to fight for its very survival.

Its full name gives a flavour of its history of battling to retain its historic identity: Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta. The countries refer to episodes in its military history where it has often had to battle – to the death – to remain a holy military order with self-governing status, even if its territory is now a fraction of what it was when it ruled Rhodes (and later Malta) in the middle ages – and owned large estates in England. Its main purpose then was to protect pilgrims and the sick on route to the Holy Land. 

Its motto – or charism – is Tuitio Fidei et Obsequium Pauperum. This means “Defence of the Faith and Service to the Poor and the Sick”.

According to one senior professed knight, the spiritual mission of the Order’s members is “to develop their personal sanctification through works of mercy”. The Order arranges Masses, Days of Recollection, Retreats and Pilgrimages as well as its humanitarian work. 

The idea of the Tomasi draft reforms seems to have been to turn the Order into an “institute of religious life” run by an ever dwindling brotherhood of professed knights, of which there are only 38 left, with only 19 under the age over 70.

“It is the professed who make the Order of Malta a religious Order,” said Fra Ian Scott, the 79th British Grand Prior until 2019.

He quoted Pope Benedict who said at the Order’s 900th Anniversary Mass in St Peter’s in 2013: “The professed are the heart of the Order”.

“If the Order is not to become simply another secular aid organisation, it has a constant need to attract new vocations to the professed life,” said Scott.

Although some professed knights see the reforms as their chance to sit again at the Order’s highest table, most have no wish or desire or the physical energy to take up the “burden” of the administrative duties that would be required.

In effect, power – and critical access to the Order’s wealthy bank accounts, capital and revenue (much of which funding is actually supplied, as with care homes, by Local Authorities)  – would reside with the Vatican, until they are all but phased out by dwindling numbers.

The paucity of professed knights numbers – down by over 10 from nearly 50 two years ago – has not been helped by a freeze on new vocations for the Class of Knights of Justice.

Many are baffled and deeply frustrated as to why the Vatican is trying to take away the sovereign powers of an ancient and highly effective religious order that has transformed itself in the last few decades into a world leading humanitarian operation that contributes so much to the life of the church and UN style relief work service.

The three days of talks in Rome at the Grand Magistry on the Via Condotti are the culmination of four years of wrangling following the intervention into the leadership of the Order by Pope Francis in 2017.

The Pontiff effectively took the first step to trying to seize control of the Order when he demanded the abdication of Fra Matthew Festing, the British-born former Grand Master who died in November last year, because of his attempt to force the resignation of Fra Albrecht von Boeselager, a German, as Grand Chancellor over the controversial discovery that condoms had been used as part of humanitarian relief efforts in Africa.

The truth was more complicated. The condoms saga was the culmination of a power struggle between the British traditionalist Festing, who wanted the Order to remain as a chivalrous religious military order that also did important relief and care work (with Festing leading by example by driving a lorry with relief supplies to the Balkans) and Boeselager, who wanted to expand the Order as a professionalised UN-style humanitarian operation.

After the dust settled, and Boeselager became reinstated as Grand Chancellor, the Holy Father appointed Archbishop Giovani Becciu, who is at present standing trial at the Vatican on corruption charges, as his personal delegate to oversee reforms of the religious life of the Fras but replaced him with Cardinal Tomasi in 2020.

If no agreement is reached on the future role of the Fras, the Vatican is likely to intervene and impose a resolution which will end almost a millennium of autonomous government by the Order.

The Vatican proposals have deeply divided the order, with some members – such as the Americans who have few “nobles” and hence fewer votes in the current Sovereign Council – favouring the reforms while others, including senior members of the British Order, fear they go too far because the draft text of a new constitution for the Order explicitly renders it a “subject” of the Holy See.

The new designation would effectively mean the loss of the Order’s sovereign status recognised in international law and by the United Nations, with an impact on its relations with more than a hundred countries in which it carries out relief and charitable work and also upon its finances and cash flow.

A source close to the knights told the Catholic Herald that he believed canon lawyers advising Cardinal Tomasi were determined to turn the Order into “an institute of consecrated life entirely subservient to the Vatican”.

The Order was being “shoehorned into a structure that isn’t in line with its constitution or its history or, I expect, the wishes of the vast majority of the members”.

He added: “This has been driven by the desire of the Vatican to sort of pigeonhole the order in a way that it hasn’t been pigeonholed in the past.”

“It’s been a desperate situation where something that is going to be extremely difficult for the Order to accept is being rammed down people’s throats,” he continued.

“If what’s proposed go’s ahead, I think it’s disastrous for the Order, and though the Vatican will claim that they are not taking away the Order’s sovereignty, their actions clearly show the reverse because they simply aren’t engaging with the government of the Order.

“What they’re proposing is not included in any way in the code or constitution. There’s likely to be terrible publicity as a result of this, and instead of unity it’s going to lead to a lot more fighting, which is so sad because … the Order was trundling along very well. A bomb has gone off from the Vatican and it’s very sad.”

The source also claimed that the German and English members of the Order were united in their concern about the extent reforms, while American and Italian members, as well as the professed knights themselves, were generally more in favour of them.

The Vatican proposals to expand the role the Fras, he said, were opposed because they would mean power, responsibility and governance of the order would be concentrated in the hands of an “ageing group of people who don’t have the capabilities, the background or the inclination to do things”.

The charitable work of the Order is currently entirely driven by the second and third order knights, who will lose influence and capability under the proposals, the source said.

According to the Pillar, Cardinal Tomasi is widely expected to dissolve the order’s Sovereign Council and Government Council before he convokes an extraordinary Chapter General to adopt the new constitution.

It also noted that the Order’s constitution does foresee such an intervention, which would be undertaken using special powers granted to Cardinal Tomasi by the Pope.

If such powers are exercised they would have the effect of reducing the Order to a “subject” of the Holy See even it was a secondary effect rather than the intended purpose.

One knight, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Pillar that the swift adoption of a new constitution would lead to the reconstitution of the order’s leadership.

But if this was deemed to lack legitimacy, it could precipitate a deepening of the constitutional crisis instead of resolving it, he said.

“The discussion of sovereignty isn’t at the heart of all of this,” the knight said. “This is fundamentally about the professed knights. But just because consequences are unintended does not mean that they are not consequential.”

(Photo of Knights of Malta at St Peter’s by AP)

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